Hibernian host Motherwell in the penultimate match of the Premiership’s opening weekend. 

Both sides come into the match on the back of European wins on Thursday. Hibs overturned their 2-0 loss to KF Malisheva of Kosovo with a 4-1 dismantlement at Easter Road. Motherwell made good on their 2-0 home win against Havnar Boltfelag by winning 3-0 in The Faroe Islands.

Motherwell will enter the campaign full of hope after last season’s revelation under Jens Berthel Askou, but it’s also a new era in Lanarkshire after Askou departed for Toulouse, being replaced by Swedish manager Alfred Johansson. They’re also without many stars from last season such as Elijah Just, Stephen Welsh, Eliot Watt & Callum Slattery.

As for Hibernian, last season was a rather underwhelming one as David Gray’s side finished 5th. The 2-0 loss in Pristina raised many fan’s eyebrows around his future. It’s unsure whether Thursday’s redemption was a routine home win for Hibernian, or paper over the cracks.

Coming into the match, David Gray said: “We’re certainly going into the game in a real positive frame of mind. 

“It’s a big effort required again against Motherwell, but I’ll go back to what I said going into the first leg (against KF Malisheva), which was I’m really happy with how pre-season went, really happy with the physicality of the players.

“We picked up a few knocks and niggles, which is a bit frustrating, but they’re getting closer now as well, so it is again much more positive. 

“But you can’t rest on that, and we need to keep moving forward, and we’ve got an opportunity at home against a team that’s progressed in Europe as well. 

“You want your Scottish clubs to do well, so I was delighted for them (Motherwell). I think that is important. They’ve started well again. 

“They’ve got a new manager, and they’ll be a different test slightly, but at the same time I think they’re playing quite a similar way, and we know it will be a difficult test.

“We want to try and do it right. It’s a team that we never beat last season but we’ve got an opportunity in the first game of the season to try and do that.”

The loss in Kosovo made many question Hibs’ consistency, when Gray was asked about this, he said: “I think it’s all about consistency for us. I think we’ve demonstrated that in spells last season.

“I know we went right to the very last game, and if we had won the last game of the season, we would have finished fourth.

“At times we were probably a wee bit frustrated at times last season because I do believe when we put the complete performance in, we’re a very good side, and we showed that with the European stuff. 

“We showed that when we won at Celtic Park, we also won at Ibrox.

“We’ve added well to the squad this season, but so have every team. I fully expect a real tough season, a real competitive season again.

“This is my third season, so I’ve spoken a lot about that freshness and trying to get new ideas into the players because I don’t want them to become comfortable. I’m certainly not comfortable.

“We need to keep pushing forward, but certainly be real and consistent in the last two seasons, where we’ve achieved back-to-back European qualifications.

“The question is can we go and do that for the third season? It may be harder this year with the fact that you might have to finish fourth or win a trophy, so that’s the challenge for the players and the challenge for myself.”

Ahead of his first-ever Scottish Premiership match, Johansson was asked if Motherwell fans can expect more of the same from last season, he said: “I think so, we’ll have to see. One of my targets, or our main targets is to consolidate the style of play from last year in a moment of change, when there’s changes in the squad.

“Obviously I am not the same person and the same manager as the previous one, so with a new manager and new players, there will be slight differences in the expression of the team, but the target is to consolidate the style of play.”

Much of his press conference revolved around their Conference League matchup with HJK Helsinki, but Johansson maintained that his side are fully focussed on today’s clash in Leith. He said: “I always have a really narrow focus, a really short-term focus in terms of performance, so it’s the game against Hibs on Sunday which is the biggest target of the season for now.”

The two sides met four times last season, Motherwell won twice and earned a draw on the remaining two occasions. The sides last met during last season’s dramatic final day as Lukas Fadinger earned 10-man Motherwell a 1-0 win. That result should fill Motherwell with confidence as it was the first time a non-Old Firm team won at Easter Road since November 2024.